


calloused

by pipecleanerFlowers



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/M, Writing Jam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 04:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3836683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipecleanerFlowers/pseuds/pipecleanerFlowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Serena's not a palm-reader, but she knows that Shun's more experienced than her out on the field than she is just by looking at his hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	calloused

**Author's Note:**

> so I got the prompt "hand fetishization" from the kink generator but then managed to make it super sfw and not at all kinky.
> 
> this is the power of the most innocent person in the writing jam ;)
> 
> also unedited so. holla.

It’s when they’re surrounded, back to back with only their duel disks and decks to rely on because somehow in the chase, they’d lost their packs with all their supplies. The smokebombs Tsukikage supplied would have been useful around now, Serena thinks, but there’s no time to dwell when monsters appear out of the holo-systems and they have to fight.

But then Shun tears a path through, grabs her hand, and dashes off. It throws her off-balance, and she’s confused until she looks to the horizon, off where Shun had been facing, and realizes this Obelisk team had backup. Lots of it. And the complaint she was about to bite out -- _we can take them_ \-- dies on her lips.

Shun’s practically dragging her along by the time he finally ducks into an alleyway and stops, back against the brick wall, huffing and out of breath.

“We’re lucky they didn’t have duel anchors, or that could have been a lot worse,” he says, sliding down the wall and crouching on the ground, trying to catch his breath, hand still clutched around Serena’s who follows him, sits on the cold concrete beside him, trying to do the same.

She nods, too winded to respond with more.

“You planned on taking all of them, didn’t you.”

“Yeah,” she says after a long moment. “I thought…”

Shun snorts. “I guess Academia doesn’t have survival classes.”

“No, they don’t.”

“It’s called fight or flight, an instinct that goes off in your brain when you’re in danger,” Shun explains. “I guess Academia only fosters self-confident idiots, so you wouldn’t know.”

Serena’s brow furrows, bringing her knees up to her chest and frowning. “They always travelled in groups--”

“I know.”

Serena presses on, clutching his hand tighter, feeling the ridges of his callouses and cuts and _experience_ because she lacks all of it. “The Professor taught us to win, if we couldn’t do that, then we weren’t sent out.”

“Is that why your face never showed in Heartland?”

“No. He just--” she cuts herself off, because she’s never really known. All she ever knew was that she was too valuable to be on the frontlines, too valuable to be sent away from the island even if just to Domino City. “I don’t know why. The Professor wanted to stay on that island, so I could never leave.”

Shun sighs, pulls in a long breath, and exhales. “You should have stayed there.”

“Why?” Serena asks, almost offended at the sentiment.

He lets go of her hand, holds it up. “Wars do more than just this,” he says, but Serena doesn’t see what he does.

“What do they do?” she asks, fingers brushing over dry, cracking skin, raised edges of old scars turned white. But next to his hand, hers looks soft, smooth, unmarked by anything but the naturally-formed lines and veins that stick out when she holds it a certain way.

He waits, golden gaze trained on her because he knows she’s already found her answer.

They really do look like the hands of an overprotected child.

“I--”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine,” Serena mumbles. “I keep dragging you down. You could have said something. I could have… I don’t know.”

“It’s too late now. And it doesn’t matter anyway. You’ve already made your decision.”

“One that could hurt you.”

“I had to learn too, once,” Shun says, and it’s hardly comforting, but he’s trying. “You just have to catch up.”

Serena nods. “Okay. I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments are appreciated, lovelies <3


End file.
